POLL: College Education - Online or Classroom

Remove all ads!

Hello,

I would like to pick your brain and see what you think is more effective for college education: online, classroom, combo (meaning a single class does both) or you don't have an opinoin.

I am asking this question because I am currently an online student. Prior to starting my online education, late last year I attended standard classroom setting part-time for almost 7 years. During those seven years, I had horrible experiences in the classroom setting and felt I was cheated out of my education due to lack of participation or time to particpate, lecture method really doesn't help me learn the skills needed to be successful in my field, professor were horrible at keeping my interest or they never showed up, etc... every year I would have to motivate myself just to sign up for classes to get closer to completing my degree.

Today I am an online student. I find myself motivated to attend class and signing up for them is easy. I also find myself retaining the information from class longer and learning more so than before. The professor lectures are in typed format for easy reading and most of the them help explain or expand on the information from the text books used. I also enjoy hearing other student's point of view and being able to express my opinoin on the varying subjects student discuss throughout a course. I also find online test to improve a student understanding of the subject as the student is required to write more.

Of course of all the classes I have taken both online and in the classroom there are a few classes I believe that should be left alone as classroom classes: Public Speaking/Business Presentation, math classes, and computer programming / science classes with a lab that has the professor available. Other than these few classes all other classes should be taught online.

I for one thought online education had little merit but this past year changed my mind. Online education, through an accredited school, I believe is well worth the investment.

I am glad online colleges/universities exist, thanks to Southern New Hampshire University I am four classes away from graduating. I will be done my degree by May 2008.

What is your take and why?

Poll Information
This poll contains 1 question(s). 8 user(s) have voted.
You may not view the results of this poll without voting.

Poll Results: College Education - Online or Classroom (8 votes.)

College Education - Online or Classroom (Choose 1)
* Online education - 13% (1)
* Classroom - 75% (6)
* Combi - Online and Classroom - 13% (1)
* No opinoin - 0% (0)

 

I have only experienced classroom education, so it is hard for me to say whether or not an online course would work for me. I graduated from college 10 years ago though, and back then online colleges were still in their fledgling stages. In the time since then, I know several people who have done online degrees. Most of the them were satisfied with the experience, although from talking to them, they didn't tell me that online education was better - it was just more convenient. I got the impression that most of the people preferred the actual classroom experience, but their schedules would not permit them taking the classes, so they opted for the online version instead.

 

Aldeth the Foppish Idiot,

I should have graduated 7 years ago, but took the long route. The reason why I choose online is due to my scheduling; however, after one full year under my belt I am a firm believer in online education.

Just recently I been sending emails to the professors I have had since I enrolled; most of them are against classroom setting, which surprised me. After receiveing their first response I would ask why; most of the responded with the actual learning and renention of the information taught. Another thing that surprised me is most professor could care less if you used a book or not for testing; they mainly want you to learn and get educated, the purpose of being in school. Classroom biggest disadvantage is a lack of time for all students to particpate in classroom discussion. Online setting you can discuss the same topic from the first week until the class ends. This can occur if the topic is interesting enough. This happened in one of my classes, it lasted 3 or 4 weeks in a 8 week course.

 

More effective? I have to say classroom. There's nothing like experiencing it in person.

But that's not to say that online classes aren't a great idea. They're even more versatile for setting your schedule than college already is when you can pick your class times (to an extent).

 

As a classroom teacher perhaps I have a bias, but I would say the immediacy of a classroom and the human interaction inherent therein is extremely beneficial to learning. This assumes that there is some opportunity for interaction. If a class is nothing but the professor lecturing, he should just put his lecture on-line and let people read it at their leisure. But such professors (in my B.Ed experience, anyhow) are rare.

I can understand that some people are just not suited to a classroom environment, though, and for them the on-line option for some classes might be appealing. But for the most part I value the classroom approach.

 

LKD,

As a classroom teacher here are a few questions for you.

Do you lecture the material in class? If so, could this info be provided to the student in a written document?

For class participation is there a small group of students who take a majority of participation for each class?

Do you believe there are student who may have something of value to add, but can't or don't?

Do you find your student not being able to rentain the info of the material for more than a month?

If you answered yes to at least three of the questions above the class you teach can be online and effective.

Fel,

Here me out on this.

The standard classroom has it flaws and the biggest one is it waste students' and professor's time. Most of the classes I attended in the past was 75-90% lecture. All of the lectures could be put into a written document.

From there the rest of the classroom room is used to do group projects or for class discussion; this is solved through an online discussion board where all students are required to participate.

I find myself having more info this way as I am seeing how other student think on the various topics. Groups are easier to work with since everything is done through electronical communication.

The one thing I miss is networking with the professors and business professionals who stopped by to provide us info on their industry.

I am not against classroom education; in fact I think the first two years of college should be mostly classroom and one or two online classes. Junior year should be 50/50 and by senior year all classes should be online. This way your senior year you would have the added time to do an internship without worrying too much about the need to attend the class at a specific time. I actually think, internship should be a requirement for a college undergrad to graduate from school. This way the graduating student has working experience, etc...

I know I can't make a believer out of those who doubt something that haven't tried, trust me I was one of them. However, I do hope that you keep an open mind.

 

LKD teaches english as a second language, and any type of class where you are teaching a second language is not overly condusive to online instruction. You can check spelling and grammar easily enough by reading an e-mail, but there is no way that you can tell if the student is pronouncing the words correctly over the internet.

 

I, too, graduated about 10 years ago when online degrees weren't as prevalent so I have no direct experience with them. Nevertheless, I personally don't think I would like the online route. I had a hell of a lot of fun in college and I wouldn't trade that for anything. I really enjoyed the personal interaction in the classroom and I think that I wouldn't fare as well if left to my own devices. I don't think I'd have the discipline to work or study from home and not be distracted by computer games, music, etc. So, I wouldn't like to get my education online because I feel that, on the whole, the classroom experience adds to the educational experience. That said, I think that if going online is a person's best opportunity to obtain a degree due to time constraints, etc., then they should defintely do it. I just don't believe that it would be my cup of tea.

 

I imagine it probably depends on the subject. Some subjects can only really be well communicated in person, whereas for others it may not matter so much. As for your bad experiences with professors, that's a risk in any education form. You can find poorly written books, unreliable 'experts', poorly designed experiements, etc. The trick is to find the good ones instead of the bad ones. Good luck with that.

 

I'm a certified geezer and never laid fingers on a computer until many years after leaving college. Computers were for graduate researchers in the hard sciences. There were no personal computers. There was no Internet. So, my college education was all in the classroom.

That said, I think online courses would work quite well for some subjects and less well for others. Some subjects inherently require personal interaction: foreign languages, for instance, are nearly useless if you don't practice speaking with people who respond unpredictably to you. Others are probably better communicated in the online forum format: oddly enough, I'd think a lot of humanities courses that should be discussion-heavy might work better online, though a little practice listening in person wouldn't hurt, either.

Still, I bid a faint sad farewell to the long abandoned ideal of the liberal education that apprenticed the student to the teacher in a period of preparation for responsible, educated living. That can't be done online. I am the person I am more because of the teachers I had than because of the parents I had, even more because of who the teachers were than because of what they taught me. In American higher education at least, those days are nearly gone. College now is about getting ready to go to work, not getting ready to live your life. Ah, well.

 

According to a very old (but in my mind still basically valid) model, people learn in three basic ways. One way is visual, which means that charts, graphs, and indeed, the written word, are the medium through which learning occurs. The next way is auditory, which means that the sound of a voice (or musical instrument, in the case of music education) is how the instruction occurs. Finally, there is kineasthetic (sic) learning, which is learning through actually doing something physically(think practicing a layup in basketball and you'll see what I mean).

Now for a primarily visual learner, online rocks. For a primarily auditory learner, even with sound files, what they need is to actually be in the presence of a speaking teacher in order to process the data they are receiving. I'll talk more on this later.